The Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has claimed that there is a chance comedian Bill Burr is his half-brother.
The 57-year-old musician revealed that his suspicions were raised by his own step-mother.
Speaking on the Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast on Tuesday (November 26), Corgan commented on the resemblance between the pair before beginning a story he said he’d “never told [...] anyone. In fact, most of my friends don’t even know this story.”
Corgan went on: “So, about 10 years ago, one of my brothers was having a birthday party and my stepmother was there who was obviously married to my father. And my stepmother said to me, ‘Do you know who Bill Burr is?’ Now at that point, I had never heard of Bill Burr, I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t know he was a comedian or anything. He could have been the guy down the street.”
Corgan’s step-mother then found a photo of Burr (who isnow 56) and Corgan said he quickly noted a familial resemblance. “I kind of noticed right away, ‘Gee, he kind of looks like my father,’” he said. “Bill Burr looks more like my father than Bill Burr looks like me or I look like Bill Burr.”
He then asked his step-mother why she’d brought the topic up. “She goes, ‘I think it might be one of your father’s illegitimate children. Bill Burr might be one of the children that your father sired in his days of being a traveling musician,’” said Corgan. “This is a true story. I’m not making this up, there is no joke in this. This is a true story. I’ve never told this anywhere, honestly.”
Corgan added: “And my father did once tell me that I had a half brother named Bill, who was basically born around the same time as me. He told me on my 18th birthday. This is all totally true. I swear to God. So I said, ‘Well, how many other possible illegitimate children does daddy have because he did tell me about this one Bill.
“And again, I didn’t know that Bill was a famous comedian, he could have been a guy that’s working down the street at the Whack Factory in Chicago. I had no idea who he was. None. Zero.
“And she goes, ‘I think there’s 12 total,’” the musician went on, joking, “Well, he was a traveling musician.”
Corgan said he’d never asked Burr about the possibility of their being related, and admitted he had his doubts about the story. “It’s my belief at this point, because I’ve sat on the story for 10 years, that I don’t think Bill Burr and I are related,” said Corgan. “I think it’s just one of those things. There are just people in the world that look alike.”
The Independent has approached Burr’s representatives for comment.
